


Moments of touch

by IlIcythings



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Alec Hardy Needs A Hug, Comfort, Crying, Drabble, Ficlet, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Foot Massage, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Light Angst, Movie Night, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sickfic, To Be Continued, Touching, i know there's a pandemic but still
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24450649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlIcythings/pseuds/IlIcythings
Summary: A short series (i guess?) of drabbles in which I heavily project my love of touch onto Alec and Ellie. You could read this as a relationship between them if you want, but I'm loving the ambiguity.
Relationships: Alec Hardy & Ellie Miller
Comments: 47
Kudos: 62





	1. When she plays with his hair

Alec loves it when she plays with his hair. Ellie starts at his hairline, nails scraping gently at the skin in small circles, moving her fingers back slowly, towards the crown of his head. She pulls her digits out of the short hair and returns to the hairline. She repeats these calming touches a few times before moving her attention to the back of his head, where the hair has grown out a little longer. Here, she pulls her fingers through the strands, tugging a little on the way down. She moves slower each time, living in their prolonged contact.


	2. After a long day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhh, yeah i've got more now. I don't really know what happened. Enjoy!!

Ellie’s feet are often quite sore after a long day. Alec always notices and makes sure that Ellie sits down for a few minutes. He slowly takes off her shoes (and socks, if she’s wearing them) before using his fingers to give her a brief massage. He starts with the left foot, using both thumbs, and rubs at the ball of her foot. This always relaxes her. His fingers seem to saunter downward towards the arch of the foot, continuing their motions. He eventually switches to the right foot, as Ellie begins to lose some of the tension she holds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any suggestions, feel free to enlighten me.


	3. They never hugged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something from Bob's POV.

Ellie hugs her colleagues, friends from around the town and even strangers when they look particularly down. Ellie’s hugs always made you feel better, as he should know because he’d been on the receiving end of a few. Bob could only think of one person that Ellie had never hugged. Alec Hardy. It was especially unusual because they share so many casual touches, day in and day out. They were close friends, at the very least, but they never seem to hug, from what Bob could see. Bob had never them on the days when one of them was crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda need hugs, but I'm horrible at asking for them unless I'm crying so I wrote this.


	4. ...up to the day she did

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec hug angst.  
> Dedicated to Hazelmist and Amitafi because they really want to see the hug. Patience, my dears.

Alec once thought that he didn’t deserve hugs. He thought it was because he tended to be rude. He could easily count the people he had hugged in the past: his mum, Tess, and Daisy, the only one who would now. Even Ellie, who hugged seemly anyone wouldn’t hug him. He thought back to that exchange in the bathroom:

> “Want a hug?”  
>    
>  “What? No!”  
>    
>  “Right, no”  
> 

Of course, Alec failed to realise that it wasn’t him that was the problem in this case, just the context. He didn’t think she would hug him, right up to the day she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that I will actually write the hug, just Alec angst got in the way first!  
> Also, what's this?? Dialogue?!! (stolen from the show, but still. full credit to Chibnall, as well as David and Oliva for their performances)


	5. They almost melted together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Ellie finally hug.

The other officers had gone home due to a frustrating lack of leads on a child murder case, but Alec and Ellie couldn’t leave, not yet. 

Neither of them knows who started crying first. Ellie laughed wetly, and a little maniacally, when she realised that he had begun to cry as well.

  


“Want a hug?”, she echoed words from so long ago.

“What?!”

“Do you want a hug or not, sir?”

“Are you offering?” He thought that she would never.

“I wouldn’t ask otherwise, knob.”

  


Neither of them knows who moved first. They almost melted together, holding each other tightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Never has 100 words seemed so short. I didn't want this to be so sad, but the story has a mind of its own I guess. Maye the next one will be more fluffly.


	6. Movie night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Movie night in CID.

Ellie had suggested a CID movie night, and to everyone’s surprise, Alec didn’t protest. At the end of the day, all of the chairs were dragged into the conference room and ‘Sherlock Holmes’ was voted as the movie of choice.

Alec plonked himself down next to Ellie, and Ellie took the opportunity to use his shoulder as a headrest as she watched the movie. Again, Alec didn’t protest. The room was full of sharp-eyed detectives, but none of them dared comment on the unusual behaviour of their boss. 

Alec ended up enjoying movie night more than he thought he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm running out of ideas. I'm at home on school holidays, so I'm getting less physical contact than I like (and probably need) so I can't really draw from real life. Oh well, I'll live through Alec.


	7. Early Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec comes into work sick.

DI Alec Hardy walked into the station, expecting to be greeted by Miller’s customarily cheerful greeting. Instead, he was treated to an early morning glare.

“Alec, you cannot possibly be considering working today.”

“I’m fine, Miller.” He quickly reassured, which was slightly undermined by his sickly complexion and running nose.

“I’m taking you home. You’re not coming in and getting all of CID sick while being unable to do your job properly.”

Alec would have protested a mere 6 months ago.

Now, he went along with his subordinate, to the surprise of none of the officers working at the station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that it's been a while. this chapter was directly inspired by a comment from JellyBean102902. school is back, so i can see my friends which is nice, but we can't hug bc corona.   
> is it weird to be writing a sick!fic in the middle of a pandemic? probably. I'm doing it anyway.


	8. Sick Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of however many chapters there will be dedicated to sick!Alec

As soon as they got to Alec’s House, Ellie ushered the DI straight into bed. A quick touch of the back of her hand to his forehead had her questioning: “Do you have some paracetamol?”

“I don’t need anything, Ellie, I haven’t got a fever.”

“You’re shivering all over and burning up. I know what a fever looks like, even if Joe took care of the kids when they were sick.”

It was the first time in months that Ellie had mentioned Joe.

“Ack, I’ll take the bloody medicine – only because you’re asking, bossy-boots.”

Just like that, everything was fine.


End file.
